Ian Murdock is Joining Sun

This is big news. Ian Murdock is leaving the Linux Foundation and joining Sun. If you’re an OpenSolaris fan this has to be exciting, but it also means that Linux may actually get a fair shake inside Sun. Linux and Sun have had an odd history, with the company going back and forth between hot and cold multiple times. Looking at the latest OpenSolaris at SCALE this year, I have to admit I was impressed. Dtrace, zones, ZFS – there is some real innovation there. I still think Linux should be part of the overall Sun vision though, and OpenSolaris and Linux should be able to coexist. Ian makes the statement that Linux needs to play a clearer role in the platform strategy, so we’ll see what happens. Interesting times. Kudos to Sun for being able to pick up an absolutely top notch person and congratulations to Ian on the new job.